The Not So Simple Living Fair is this weekend in Boonville

Penny Livingston-Stark, cofounder of the Regenerative Design Institute at Commonweal Gardens in Bolinas, will be the keynote speaker Sunday at this weekend's Not-So-Simple Living Fair at the Boonville Fairgrounds. Her topic will be natural systems, with a focus on water.

"The most important thing is to understand the whole system of permaculture design, about natural systems and how they function with each other, the integration of plants, animals, the elements of earth, fire and water and how they benefit each other," she says.

It is important to explore and understand the function of patterns we see in the world, the natural flows, on the landscape, she says. For example, how many functions can a tree provide? "We have a mulberry tree that is cranking out mulberries beyond what we can harvest and eat. It's planted next to the chickens, providing high protein for them, converting mulberries into eggs. It shades them, provides mulch and feeds us as well.

Livingston-Stark grew up in Marin and she and her husband, James, teach permaculture, leadership and deep nature connections on their living permaculture farm in Bolinas.

In addition to raising goats, chickens and bees, they grow fruit and nut trees, annual vegetables and medicinal foods, trees for timber and furniture and fodder for their animals on their 17- acre integrated multifunctional farm. "It's what permaculture is about, regenerative living," she says.

They have established water purification systems and do a lot of water harvesting. "We have been doing water harvesting and water infiltration on the landscape over the years, increasing our storage capacity and the capacity of the land to store water.

"We are trying to train the running water how to walk, and we have put in contour ditches to capture it. We infiltrate the rainwater into soil and landscape so it can be held, creating an underground tank, an aquifer, where trees and plants can access it as they need it."

They have 15,000 gallons of tank storage using big dark green polyethylene tanks measuring 10 feet in height and 8 feet in diameter. They have seven of them and they are all full right now. They have a catch water pond and solar pump the water up to storage on the ridge and gravity feed it down. They have a 2,500 gallon tank on their roof to catch water and a 7,500 gallon tank that collects a tiny trickle from a spring, 350 gallons a day; every bit goes into the tank.

"Having those kinds of design elements, we capture every single drop of water. We can direct water, we can let the ditches fill up and infiltrate into the soil; everywhere we catch the water, we can put it somewhere it does best. We are not on any water system right now; we are water rich at this moment."

"Water is so sacred and such a connecting matrix for all of life; I want to talk about the wonders of water and issues that need to be addressed. It's spiritual, political, socioeconomic and ecological. It encompasses all forms of human society and activity, and the way we are treating it right now is unconscionable.

"The reason we are having a crisis around water is not technological but is spiritual. We have to shift our relationship to water and deeply understand what it is, or rather who it is. We objectify it in such a way that allows us to treat it the way we do, polluting it in so many way without thinking or understanding how precious it is.

"You don't want to wait for a drought to start planning for the consequences; once the drought hits and you haven't been planning for it, it's too late. I am hoping to share a deeper awareness of water, as well as practical approaches on how to honor it, treat it and to conserve it. If everybody did what we are doing, the whole watershed would be fine."

Livingston-Stark had a landscape design build company for 25 years and now consults on water development design doing walk-throughs on properties, helping to develop plans.

"Water development needs to be first and foremost in planning, designed around water first, creating water retention landscapes in and around human settlements. I do a walk-through and read the landscape with individuals and find out their dreams and desires and help them create a plan to put that in place.

"We are living in a time when people are waking up and coming together and asking more appropriate questions, grappling with our survival and how to change our ways. We are especially fortunate to live in this part of the country, where the culture is moving towards a more regenerative type of living."

The Not-So-Simple Living Fair, a weekend of hands-on workshops and demonstrations celebrating rural living and homesteading skills, is returning July 25, 26 and 27 to the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville.

For the full schedule of events, including Livingston-Stark's keynote presentation on Sunday, go to notsosimple.info.